Unexpected Guests
by Adriana DiVolpe
Summary: Doctor/Donna. One-shot. - HET - After a trip to the Ood Sphere, Donna discovers a stowaway on the TARDIS.  Very fluffy.


**prompt:** 'Doctor/Donna - an Ood interlude'. Written for **bacon_fiend** in the 2010 Secret Santa at **doctor_donna**.

**word count:** 2030

**author's note:** Established relationship. _Really_ mushy: almost to the point of being so mushy I can't even believe I wrote it. Just a warning.

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**Unexpected Guest(s)**

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"Brrr," shivered Donna, shaking snowflakes out of her hair, "I know I said it'd be nice to see some snow for Christmas, but I didn't mean I wanted to go to the flippin' _Arctic_!"

"Not the Arctic, Donna. The Ood Sphere! We've been there before, remember?"

"Yeah, and it was just as cold then!" she retorted, shrugging out of her coat and hanging it on the rack next to the door. "I thought you could find us a nice planet with warm snow or something!"

"It's not snow, then! That's something else entirely! The molecular composition—"

"Oh, save it, Mr _Science_! And close the blimmin' door already—it'll be as cold in here as it is out there!"

He hadn't realised he'd been standing with the door wide open; he pushed it to and stripped off his overcoat, tossing it over the customary coral arm as he strode towards the centre console. Initiating the dematerialisation sequence, he programmed in the co-ordinates and flipped the switch to send them into the Vortex.

Brushing the last few melting snowflakes from her hair, Donna sat herself down on the jumpseat, rubbing her hands together vigorously and blowing into them to warm them up.

"Like some cocoa?" he asked, hoping to earn back some points after his apparent misunderstanding. Even though she _had_ asked for snow. Wasn't his fault. How was he to know she'd meant _warm_ snow? Generally, when people asked for _snow_—

"Yeah, that'd be lovely, thanks," she replied with a smile that told him he was forgiven.

He disappeared off down the corridor, and no sooner had she relaxed against the seat than she thought she heard a footfall on the grating. "Doctor?" Had he come back already?

He didn't answer.

"Is that you?" she called, apprehension tightening her chest.

Spying the mallet the Doctor sometimes used to "fix" the console when it was acting up, she wondered how quickly she could reach it.

She was just beginning to inch towards it when something popped out from around the other side of the console and she nearly jumped out of her skin. It was an Ood. To be precise, it was a very small Ood, no bigger than a human toddler, with a large, dark marking over his left eye.

Donna recognised him instantly, her fear melting away. It was the same Ood she'd just an hour playing with in the village they'd visited, while the Doctor was busy chatting it up with the locals. He must have followed them back to the TARDIS.

"Come 'ere, Sweetheart," she called to him gently, sliding from the jumpseat and crouching down on the floor.

The little Ood didn't hesitate; he toddled over into her open arms, allowing himself to be pulled into her lap.

"How did you get in here, hey?" she asked as he settled down against her. "Did you sneak in while we weren't looking? Hmm?"

He just looked up at her, wide-eyed and innocent, tentacles rippling inquisitively.

"Donna, did you want any—" The Doctor came back into the console room with a mug in each hand, breaking off as he saw her sitting on the floor. "What are you doing down—" And then he saw the Ood sitting on her lap.

"This little guy decided to follow us back to the TARDIS," she told him, looking up with a smile.

"I see that." He set the mugs down on a flat section of the console, careful to keep them away from any important switches or buttons. Well, they were all important, really—but some of them were slightly more useful than others.

"So I've been keeping him company. We'll have to take you back, won't we?" she crooned, turning her head back to the Ood. "Your parents will be so worried about you."

"Ood don't really have parents, not in the same sense as humans," the Doctor was quick to correct. "Young Ood are brought up by the whole village. I was having a nice chat about it with Freddy while we were there. Well, Freddy wasn't his real name—didn't have a name: Ood don't. But I had to call him something—couldn't just keep calling him 'Ood'."

"Well, even if he doesn't have parents, _someone'll_ be worried. You'll have a whole village worrying over you, eh?" The little Ood looked up at her with big, bright eyes as she stroked his head.

"He's so affectionate," she commented as he copied her motions, rubbing a tiny hand across her upper arm.

"He's reading your mood. Ood are empaths as well as telepaths—they pick up on the moods as well as the thoughts of those around them. Normally just other Ood, but you've formed a bond with this one—and young Ood form a strong connection with beings they've bonded with."

"So he can read my mind?"

"Not exactly, no. He doesn't have access to your thoughts because you don't have telepathic ability."

"But you do. So he could read yours?"

"Theoretically, yes. I don't broadcast the way Ood do. But it would be possible. Especially if it were coupled with a strong emotion."

"I guess you'd better not get angry, then, or he'll be finding out all your dirty little secrets, eh?"

The Doctor chuckled, not bothering to explain that that wasn't the way it worked, either.

Lifting his mug from the console, he sat down on the jumpseat, sipping at his cocoa and watching Donna play with the young Ood. They would have to take him back soon, but he could always get the TARDIS to drop them back a bit earlier. Donna was clearly smitten.

The Ood curled a tentacle around her finger and she smiled, completely taken with the little being in her arms. "Good mum," he said happily, snuggling against Donna's chest.

Donna looked up at the Doctor in surprise. "I didn't know he could talk. Doesn't he need one of those... plastic white thingies?"

The Doctor jerked his head vaguely. "TARDIS is translating."

"Oh." Turning back to the Ood, she corrected gently, "No, Sweetheart: I'm not anybody's mum."

"Will be."

"Oh, well, I don't think I've got a lot of time left for that, now," she said, and the sadness in her voice tugged at the Doctor's hearts.

"Soon." The Ood looked up at the Doctor and Donna followed suit.

"What's he mean by that? Doctor? He psychic or something?"

The Doctor jumped up off the seat, suddenly very interested in brushing dust off a little switch that didn't see as much use as some of the others. "Not psychic, no. Just telepathic."

"So he can't see the future, then?"

"No."

"Well then what..."

"I may have accidentally..." He rubbed a sheepish hand up the back of his neck. "...let something slip. Just now."

"What, so now _you_ can see the future?" She raised her eyebrows at him. "Thought you told me you couldn't do that. Why didn't you tell me? I could've picked the lotto numbers or something. Or would that not be allowed; muck up the timelines, or whatever?"

He shook his head. "Nobody's talking about seeing the future, Donna. More like we're talking about the present. We-ell... _near_ future, I suppose. Close to the present. Might as well be the present. Well, _related_ to the present, in any case."

"All he said was 'soon'. _Soon_ is not the present. _Soon_ is the future. You'd think being a _Time_ Lord you'd know that, Dumbo."

He sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. "Donna, you're not—"

"Hang on." She frowned. "You said... You said 'near future', yeah? But... related to the present? Is that supposed to—Are you—" She pressed a hand to her mouth, realisation finally hitting her full force. "Are we—Am I..." Her voice dropped to an incredulous whisper. "_Pregnant_?"

He couldn't keep the grin off his face at her utterly dumbfounded expression. "Yes."

For one of the only times since he'd known her, Donna had nothing to say. Looking down at the Ood—who now had the same stunned look in his eyes that she did—she raised her head to refocus on the Doctor and spluttered, "You _knew_?"

His grin fell. This was not the reaction he'd been envisioning. "I—Well... Yes."

"What were you—Why didn't you—" She stood up, carefully setting the Ood down on his feet as she rose. "..._How_?"

"Oh... Little things... Chemical changes. Subtle, but definitely detectable through olfaction." At her blank expression he added, "Smell."

"You can _smell_ my _hormones_?"

"Not all the time. Not right now," he added helpfully. "Only when I'm very close to you. And by very close, I mean _really_ close, as in when my nose is right against your skin, and—"

"That's... That's _creepy_!"

"Well... That's not the _only_ way I could tell. There's also the telepathic connection." He spoke quietly, absently spinning a little dial next to the Fast Return Switch. "I didn't pick up on it right away because... Well, it's been quiet so long—no other Time Lords... I didn't recognise it at first... And the signal is weak, now, but..." He let his voice trail off, pushing his hands into his pockets.

She came towards him and he unconsciously jumped back a step, half fearing he was going to get a slap for being a creepy, alien pervert. But she didn't slap him—instead, she flung her arms around him, burying her face against his neck. Sweeping his hands across her back, he pressed a kiss against the side of her face, murmuring her name into her hair.

When she pulled back from him her eyes were sparkling with tears and a jubilant smile was twitching on her mouth. "You prawn!" she scolded gently, swatting him in the arm. "Why didn't you tell me?"

"Because you just told me it was creepy!"

"Yeah, well... It is a bit, but..." She swiped the tears from her eyes, throwing herself back into his arms with little chuckle.

After a moment she pulled back to look at him. "Is this why you've been all overprotective and annoying lately? Because I'll tell you right now, you can leave off it: if you're going to be treating me like _that_ for nine months, you won't be alive long enough to see your child. Have you got that?" She smacked him lightly in the arm to emphasise her point.

"Annoying? _Me_?"

"Yes! Enough to drive a girl mad! You ask me three times an hour if I'm hungry, or if I need anything, or if I _want_ anything. Now that I'm thinking on it, we've hardly done anything dangerous or _exciting_ in a month. You don't wake me up at the crack of dawn anymore—mind, that one I'm not complaining about. And yesterday when I wanted to climb up those rocks and have a look at that fluffy dog-unicorn thing—d'you remember? You said it was the deadliest animal on the planet! I _knew_ you were lying about that!"

"I was not lying! Fardragors kill thousands of people each year! They've got the fastest acting poison in the Sacrofax Galaxy! Fangs bigger than a genfaks—and trust me, you don't want to—"

"Oh, shut up." She cut him off, seizing his collar and stopping his mouth with an enthusiastic kiss.

"Happy," the Ood announced from behind them, making Donna spin round in surprise—she'd almost forgotten he was there.

"Are you happy too, Sweetheart?" Bending down, she lifted him into her arms, settling the little Ood across her hip.

"He's singing for us," the Doctor told her, his voice soft and filled with emotion.

"Can I hear it?"

Pressing his fingers to her temples, he closed his eyes; and as she opened her mind to him, she felt the Ood's song sweep through her, hopeful and exultant, bringing fresh tears to her eyes. Looking down at the Ood, she tried without words to convey to him the depths of her gratitude, her joy.

Raising shining eyes to the Doctor's, she kissed him softly, saying, "This is the best Christmas present I've ever had."

"Happy Christmas, Donna."

"Happy Christmas, Doctor."


End file.
